"She of Little Faith" and new era?

After reading some of the reviews and comments (I haven�t seen the episode yet and I won�t for the next 2 or 3 weeks) I got the impression that the start of the Al Jean era is weaker than many people - including me - had expected. Am I right?

What about the things Al Jean wanted to change, like making Homer more smart and less jerkass, tone down unnecessary slapstick and surrealism etc? Appears the episode at least a little bit deeper and more intelligent than most of the Scully stuff or is there no real noticable change in style?

Chris

Chris Pfeiler wrote:

I don't know what you mean by "expected." I didn't expect a sudden return to form. I think the general consensus is that this is not a great episode but that it shows some promise, and it didn't have (much) stuff that was annoying or out-of-character. It's a decent start. This probably doesn't show the new team at its best, because it's a difficult subject to bring off and the writers clearly had more fun with the opening "rocket" plot (which everybody seemed to like) than with the rest of the plot. We'll get a better opportunity to judge the new team when we see how they handle a more conventional episode.

That was in this episode, which is one of the promising things. Homer in this episode was not completely out of it, and they cut way down on surreal fantasy or gross-out gags. Like I said, promising.

Sounds good.

It wasn�t clear to me from the reviews and comments whether there was a change from the Scully style or not, the comments gave me more an impression like "Nice try but the most important part (the faith conflict) fell flat" and that reminded me of the simple and superficial style of seasons 11/12 and I had expected Al Jean would change that style at least a little bit.

Well, maybe I�m expecting too much from a first episode and Al will need some time to establish a new (or hopefully old) way of making episodes. I mean - when I heard the story about Lisa�s faith conflict, it sounded like a complex story with lots of deeper potential and it almost reminded me of classic stuff like "Lisa vs Homer & the 8th Commandment" or "Bart Sells his Soul" but I guess it�s way too farfetched to expect stuff like that from a first episode after all the bad seasons.

It�s good to hear that there are promising changes. I hope I�ll see the episode soon.

Chris

No more weird stuff squeezed into Homer's bloodstream anymore!
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I noticed it

I was watching it last night not realizing it was the first Al Jean episode. I remember thinking about half way through that it felt like a season 8 or 9 episode and that I was really enjoying it. When I saw the new executive producer credit at the end, I just smiled. :-)

ScottSPM

Drunk and full of pie, Chris Pfeiler wrote:

That's about right; it was a good change, with none of the "bad". It's just not back up to that classic level, yet.

Those things were all in check. Homer (and everyone) was well characterized. There was no stupid slapstic, and little surrealism.

It's a noticeable change for the better, especially when compared to "Kill the Alligator and Run" and "Tale of Two Springfields". You'll probably like it, Chris, since it doesn't rely on the thin dialogue like much of Seasons 10-11. There is a good plot, and it doesn't leave you feeling "empty". It's no classic, but it's not too bad.